DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0284
242 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
Champs Elysees, and, as a site, offers every possible advantage, being of a gravelly soil,
already efficiently drained, and standing on the line of a continually-moving series of
public conveyances. The Champs Elysees, though at some considerable distance from the
great centre of Parisian population, are still so universal a place of resort, that they may
be fairly assumed to be "in the way" of even the poorest classes of the community.
The elevation may be admirably seen from all the approaches to the building, and it has
the advantage of being in immediate proximity to the residence of the President of the
Republic. The whole plot of the present building (exclusive of the agricultural depart-
ment) covers a vast parallelogram of 206 metres by 100 (about 675 by 328 feet English ,
round the outline of which runs a gallery about 90 feet wide, divided into two avenues by
a double range of pilasters. In the centre of each avenue is a set of stalls, placed back
to back, for the exhibition of merchandise; and both between the central pilasters, and
round, and upon the walls, other objects are placed; so that, on traversing either of the
four gangways (each about ten feet wide) the public have upon their right and left
hands objects for inspection. In the part of the building appropriated to large machinery,
of course this system cannot be carried out with the same regularity. The vast paral-
lelogram, enclosed by a somewhat similar gallery in the year 1844, was left as one
magnificent hall, within which were placed the most important objects; in the present
building we find it divided by two transverse galleries, similarly arranged to those we
have described, forming three court-yards, the central one being about 140 feet square,
and the two lateral ones 80 feet by 140 feet. The central court-yard is open to the sky;
in the middle rises an elegant fountain, placed on a platform of turf, and around are
disposed sheds for the exhibition of flowers and horticultural ornaments and implements.
One of the lateral courts (enclosed) receives a large collection of objects in metal-work,
cast-iron, &c, and the other contains an immense reservoir, in which all the drainage
from the roofs is collected, so as to form a supply of water immediately serviceable in case
of fire. In addition to this great building, which, corresponds with that previously
erected, there is this year constructed a vast shed, for the exhibition of agricultural pro-
duce and stock. It extends to a length rather greater than the width of the great
parallelogram, and is about 100 feet (English) wide. Its construction is ruder than that
of the ' Palace/ but it is not on that account less effective. It appears to have been
originally contemplated to fill the whole of this gigantic hall with cattle, &c., and to place
the agricultural implements in a large narrow gallery intervening between it and the
main building; but as the stock of animals forwarded for exhibition has not proved so
large as was anticipated, it has been half filled with semi-agricultural machines, and the
whole of the long narrow gallery alluded to crammed with stoves, and miscellaneous
domestic mechanism. The whole of the building is constructed of wood, the roofs being
covered with zinc. Of the latter material 400,000 kilogrammes, equal to 4,000 tons,
are stated to have been used; and of the former nearly 45,000 pieces of timber. The
cost of this building is understood to have been about j618,00O. Of the permanent
building erected by the King of Bavaria at Munich, for periodical exhibitions, or even of
Kroll's "Winter Garden, since burned down, it is needless to dilate. It was 310 feet
long by 82 broad, at the widest part. The building for the Birmingham Exposition of
1849—the first in this country, really so called—covered a space of 10,000 square feet,
and a corridor of 800 feet more, connected the temporary building with Bingley-house,
within the grounds of which the Exhibition took place. It was open to the public in
September, 1849, at a cost of £1,300.
Champs Elysees, and, as a site, offers every possible advantage, being of a gravelly soil,
already efficiently drained, and standing on the line of a continually-moving series of
public conveyances. The Champs Elysees, though at some considerable distance from the
great centre of Parisian population, are still so universal a place of resort, that they may
be fairly assumed to be "in the way" of even the poorest classes of the community.
The elevation may be admirably seen from all the approaches to the building, and it has
the advantage of being in immediate proximity to the residence of the President of the
Republic. The whole plot of the present building (exclusive of the agricultural depart-
ment) covers a vast parallelogram of 206 metres by 100 (about 675 by 328 feet English ,
round the outline of which runs a gallery about 90 feet wide, divided into two avenues by
a double range of pilasters. In the centre of each avenue is a set of stalls, placed back
to back, for the exhibition of merchandise; and both between the central pilasters, and
round, and upon the walls, other objects are placed; so that, on traversing either of the
four gangways (each about ten feet wide) the public have upon their right and left
hands objects for inspection. In the part of the building appropriated to large machinery,
of course this system cannot be carried out with the same regularity. The vast paral-
lelogram, enclosed by a somewhat similar gallery in the year 1844, was left as one
magnificent hall, within which were placed the most important objects; in the present
building we find it divided by two transverse galleries, similarly arranged to those we
have described, forming three court-yards, the central one being about 140 feet square,
and the two lateral ones 80 feet by 140 feet. The central court-yard is open to the sky;
in the middle rises an elegant fountain, placed on a platform of turf, and around are
disposed sheds for the exhibition of flowers and horticultural ornaments and implements.
One of the lateral courts (enclosed) receives a large collection of objects in metal-work,
cast-iron, &c, and the other contains an immense reservoir, in which all the drainage
from the roofs is collected, so as to form a supply of water immediately serviceable in case
of fire. In addition to this great building, which, corresponds with that previously
erected, there is this year constructed a vast shed, for the exhibition of agricultural pro-
duce and stock. It extends to a length rather greater than the width of the great
parallelogram, and is about 100 feet (English) wide. Its construction is ruder than that
of the ' Palace/ but it is not on that account less effective. It appears to have been
originally contemplated to fill the whole of this gigantic hall with cattle, &c., and to place
the agricultural implements in a large narrow gallery intervening between it and the
main building; but as the stock of animals forwarded for exhibition has not proved so
large as was anticipated, it has been half filled with semi-agricultural machines, and the
whole of the long narrow gallery alluded to crammed with stoves, and miscellaneous
domestic mechanism. The whole of the building is constructed of wood, the roofs being
covered with zinc. Of the latter material 400,000 kilogrammes, equal to 4,000 tons,
are stated to have been used; and of the former nearly 45,000 pieces of timber. The
cost of this building is understood to have been about j618,00O. Of the permanent
building erected by the King of Bavaria at Munich, for periodical exhibitions, or even of
Kroll's "Winter Garden, since burned down, it is needless to dilate. It was 310 feet
long by 82 broad, at the widest part. The building for the Birmingham Exposition of
1849—the first in this country, really so called—covered a space of 10,000 square feet,
and a corridor of 800 feet more, connected the temporary building with Bingley-house,
within the grounds of which the Exhibition took place. It was open to the public in
September, 1849, at a cost of £1,300.